EL-ARAJ, Israel (BP) -- Archaeologists believe they may have solved a mystery: the location of Bethsaida, the biblical town that was home to the apostles Peter, Andrew and Philip.

In addition to its identification as the hometown of three apostles (John 1:44), Bethsaida is mentioned in Scripture as the site Jesus healed a blind man (Mark 8:22) and fed the 5,000 (Luke 9:10).

Southern Baptist archaeologists, who were not involved in the project, said pinpointing Bethsaida may shed light on the biblical text, but archaeology should not be viewed as a catalyst for faith. Read More

TEL GEZER, Israel (BP) -- A discovery of ancient human remains by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary archaeologists has helped confirm Scripture's portrayal of the city of Gezer in southern Israel.

The discovery, unearthed this summer by Southwestern's Tandy Institute of Archaeology, included remains of two adults and a child inside a building that appeared to have been violently destroyed by Egyptians in the 13th century B.C., according to media reports. Because the Egyptians in that period preferred to keep vanquished foes alive, "the heavy destruction suggests the Egyptian pharaoh ... Read More

JERUSALEM (BP) -- A major discovery related to the Dead Sea Scrolls has been announced -- a cave where some of the ancient scrolls once were placed.

Archaeologists previously had listed 11 caves where Dead Sea Scrolls texts had been found. Now there's a 12th cave, according to an excavation led by Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Liberty University in Virginia -- though the cave had been looted during the mid-20th century and its scrolls taken. Read More

KARMEI YOSEF, ISRAEL (BP) -- Before the Israelites entered the Promised Land, God warned His people through Moses to avoid the idols of the Canaanites. Joshua reiterated this strict warning against the Canaanite gods after the people crossed the Jordan.

But the Israelites did not heed these warnings. The idols and false gods of the Canaanites proved to be a snare to the people from the time of the Conquest until the Exile. Read More

JERUSALEM (BP) -- Archaeologists' discovery of what may be the original burial bed on which Jesus' body was laid have been deemed "hugely significant" by a Southern Baptist archaeologist.

The burial bed -- which has not been studied by archaeologists previously -- was unearthed Oct. 28 inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, a site regarded by some as the burial place of Jesus, National Geographic reported. Two days earlier, researchers from the National Technical University of Athens removed marble cladding from the traditional burial site inside a shrine known as the ... Read More

"Believers can believe the Bible when it says that 'Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord.'"

-- Stephen Andrews

NASHVILLE (BP) -- A study suggesting widespread literacy among ancient Hebrews before 600 B.C. has been dubbed "one more nail slammed in the coffin" of liberal theology's argument that Old Testament books could not have been written during the lives of David, Moses and other scriptural authors.

The finding from a team of Israeli archaeologists and mathematicians counters notions that literacy was rare and isolated before the Jews' exile to Babylon. Read More

KARMEI YOSEF, Israel (BP) -- Added evidence that an ancient water system at Tel Gezer in Israel could be the product of Middle Bronze Age Canaanites living between the time of Abraham and the Israelite conquest was uncovered by New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's archaeology team during a challenging dig season this summer.

The Bible provides a tantalizing parallel to the Gezer system in ... Read More

PADUCAH, Ky. (BP) -- Israeli archeologists have uncovered an impressive entrance to Herod's palace at Herodium. Located only three miles southeast of Bethlehem, Herodium played an important part in the events surrounding the early life of Christ.

The December announcement by Hebrew University archeologists Roi Porat, Yakov Kalman and Rachel Chachy dovetails well with the seasonal interest in the nativity accounts of Luke and Matthew in the New Testament. Read More

Formed in 1946 by the Southern Baptist Convention, and supported with Cooperative Program funds, Baptist Press (BP) is a daily (M-F) international news wire service. Operating from a central bureau in Nashville, Tenn., BP works with four partnering bureaus (Richmond, Va.; Atlanta, Ga.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Washington, D.C.), as well as with a large network of contributing writers, photographers and editorial providers, to produce BP News.